Industry Focus – with Avril Walsh
Career steps and guidance with Graduate Construction Manager Avril Walsh ACABE
Q. What is your current role and how long have you been in the position?
A. I’m currently a Graduate Construction Manager with Lidl Ireland - I started in September 2024 at their head office in Dublin. The role essentially involves setting out how the stores and warehouses in IE and NI will look and feel. We also work on how they will be built and the management of each project’s costs from start to finish.
Q. What route did you take to your current role?
A. My journey started in 2019 at the University of Limerick, where I began a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management and Engineering. This course is accredited by CABE and combines business with engineering; it gave me the skills to take civil and building projects from design stage to reality.
The degree took four years, with a nine-month co-operative education embedded in Year 3. Course modules included forensic engineering and ethics, structural design, building regulations, and accounting for financial decision-making, to name but a few. Each module equipped me with a broad understanding of the elements of a construction project, covering planning, organisation, managing resources such as labour and finances, material selection and health and safety.
After Year 2, I took a leave of absence from my studies and completed my SafePass course to allow me to work on construction sites. That same year, I also began an evening course in Manual and Computerised Payroll via my local education and training board. This was an area I was interested in and wanted to learn more about. In the summer of that year, I worked as a junior site engineer for a contractor on residential projects in the Midlands, which really improved my practical site skills in preparation for my co-operative education.
Once I reached my final year, I knew it was time to start seriously considering what the industry could offer in terms of job options. I loved the area of project-planning and control and knew that I wanted to work on the client side as my co-operative education had been for a contracting company. The Lidl Graduate Programme was one of the first I applied for as it had great benefits, a competitive starting salary and a job description that matched the skills I had developed over my four years in UL. I was so grateful to be identified as the best fit for the role and to be offered the only graduate position in my department after the interview stage.
Q. Was this role a career aim for you from the outset?
A. From a young age, I always knew I would work in construction. My parents are self-employed groundworks and civil engineering contractors and so growing up in this environment developed my keen interest in construction. In turn, this heavily influenced my course selections.
Being a Construction Manager matches my interests and skill set perfectly. While I didn’t have a specific job title in mind whilst at college, the Construction Graduate Programme with Lidl has met all my expectations this far. One of my lecturers at UL had mentioned a past student who also worked for the company, which definitely played a part in me applying. Had this not been brought to my attention, I might not have realised that my degree would have prepared me to work in the retail sector. For this I am very thankful to my lecturers for always highlighting different areas in construction with great opportunities that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind.
Q. Did/do you have a mentor?
A. There is one person in my career to date that has given me invaluable support and guidance: Dr Jim Bradley from the University of Limerick.
Dr Bradley was my Final Year Project supervisor and lecturer; he has a wealth of knowledge and a superior eye for detail in all his work. He always encouraged me to go that extra mile in my Final Year Project, giving me a great boost of confidence with all my assignments which led to some great outcomes. Dr Bradley’s guidance played an integral part to the success of my project - I received an A1 and was selected to have my work published!
Jim’s outstanding work ethic inspired me to have a commitment to excellence; his influence has given me a profound appreciation of the value in guiding others. I hope to be able to mentor others in a similar way in years to come.
Q. Are there any other positions in the built environment sector that appeal to you?
A. In the not-so-distant future, once I have more industry experience, I aspire to return to the University of Limerick to pursue a PhD. That’s a huge aspiration of mine. My Final Year Project, entitled ‘Investigating whether social, familial and educational exposure to STEM affects female performance in a built environment degree’, ignited a strong interest for me to address gaps in the knowledge of built environment research, particularly for the context of Ireland. Long term, I would love to be a part of a significant government project in Ireland, for example infrastructure construction, that will deliver lasting benefits to communities around the country.
Further guidance:
- According to a 2024 blog by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), “construction management is the development, conservation and improvement of the built environment through clients, organisations and individuals working together to meet the changing needs of our global society.” Other terms for ‘construction manager’ include site manager, site agent or building manager.
- Avril found her degree course a very positive and inspiring experience, setting her on the path towards construction management. The University of Limerick is a CABE Academic Partner, and their BSC in Construction Management and Engineering has been CABE-accredited for the past five years, meaning it has been mapped to CABE Competency Frameworks and aligned with CABE Membership grades. To aid any research regarding academic course options available to you, try looking over the Academic Partners & Accredited Course listings on CABE’s website: cbuilde.com/our_academic_partners
- To stay informed on built environment developments across Ireland, it would be worth familiarising yourself with the Irish government’s housing plan up to 2030. Called ‘Housing for All – a New Housing Plan for Ireland’, the policy aims to improve the country’s housing system and deliver more of the types of homes required by people with different accommodation needs. Industry adaptations and policy focuses could help you in identifying future job prospects, as well as boosting your general understanding. See gov.ie